Everyone has been doing it. Whether on Wow or Icelandair, people are flocking to Iceland. In fact, in the last year they had more than four times as many visitors as inhabitants. And once you’re there you can tell exactly why.

Well, hello. It’s been a while. My adjustment to proper adulting has been a difficult one.

Conversely and in good news, despite the drag of the 9 to 5 (well, 8:30 to 5), I managed to escape to Ireland. And even squeezed in a 40 hour visit to London, during which time I managed to see 13 friends…individually. Talk about exhausting, eh?

It’s been a bit since I wrote this post – the holiday season, plus going to London to work in a Christmas Market for a month, plus moving to DC…it slipped my mind. So here it is, two months later…

I can officially not use the phrase, “I’ve been to Madagascar, but not Mexico which is a two hour drive from my house”. I figured it was about time. I mean, twenty eight years (give or take a few years living abroad) and I’d never been to the closest country? As I may have mentioned before, I have a goal of hitting 50 countries by thirty and that thirty year mark is approaching scarily fast. So Mexico became country number 48.

I’ll admit it up front: I am not LA’s biggest fan. I think of it less as a proper city and more as a large urban sprawl with horrendous traffic and poor public transport. It has never tickled my fancy much. These things aside, I won’t deny it has some great restaurants and activities. Having a visitor always helps one to discover jewels in their own playground. I had such a friend visiting last week – a Canadian fellow King’s College London-er – and we had a grand day of little adventures in Downtown LA (DTLA).Continue reading “A Day in Downtown LA”→

I’ve only got a wee bit of insight into Vancouver as I only tacked it on to my trip to Seattle and Bellingham for my flatmate’s wedding, but what a lovely two days I spent there! I caught the train, my preferred method of travel when possible, from Bellingham to Vancouver (the views weren’t half bad). Upon arriving at the train station in Vancouver, its a six minute walk over to the metro which you can then catch to downtown Vancouver. On the return leg I caught the metro to the bus station and took a bus back to Seattle (not as great as the train, but certainly cost effective).

Pristina is all about its restaurants and bars – as, sadly to admit, there isn’t too much else to do in the city. Having lived in Pristina all summer I’ve got some new jems to share. Also things in this city are constantly closing and opening for this and that so an occasional update is completely necessary.

I cannot believe that today marks FOUR years ago that I first moved to London to start my Master’s degree at King’s College London. Four years have elapsed since I embarked on my greatest adventure thus far. Sometimes I wonder if my decision to study at King’s was either the best or the worst decision I’ve ever made…

Oh Santorini, you beaute. I’ve been extremely fortunate to travel to some truly spectacular places and Santorini is definitely in my top three for a relaxing and lounging type of holiday (the variety of which I rarely do). We’ve all seen amazing photos of Santorini on the internet and it was everything I’d imagined and more. It was truly breathtaking. I spent countless hours researching which village to stay in and what accommodation to book, as where you stay is very much a part of the experience. I was very happy to find that my chosen village, Oia (pronounced ee-ya), was without a doubt the right choice. It was amazing just how silent and peaceful it was after 23:00 – I loved it.

I’ve always wanted to go to Istanbul and have some how never had the chance despite it being a very frequent layover for any flights out of the Balkans. So, en route to Rome from Pristina I made sure I had the longest layover possible in Istanbul. And boy, did we jam it full of as much as we possibly could. My legs were aching more than they’ve ever ached before on the metro back to the airport, but it was worth it to explore this Eurasian beauty.